{"id":375650,"date":"2017-11-20T09:11:09","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T09:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=375650"},"modified":"2017-11-20T09:11:33","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T09:11:33","slug":"elon-musk-unveils-tesla-electric-truck-and-new-sports-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=375650","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk unveils Tesla electric truck and new sports car"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elon Musk\u00a0unveiled Tesla\u2019s first electric semi-truck on Thursday evening at an event in Los Angeles that also included the surprise reveal of a new Tesla sports car.<\/p>\n

The new Roadster, which has the same name as the\u00a0first electric vehicle\u00a0produced by Tesla from 2008 to 2012, emerged from the back of one of the trucks at the end of a presentation that focused largely on the economic and performance needs of truck drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of doing this is just to give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars,\u201d Musk said. \u201cDriving a gasoline sports car is going to feel like a steam engine with a side of quiche.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the sports car provided a jolt of excitement for Tesla enthusiasts, much of the event focused on pitching\u00a0the truck\u00a0to truck drivers \u2013 customers with very different concerns than the average Tesla owner.<\/p>\n

In typical Musk style, the CEO had hyped the truck on Twitter throughout the week. On Sunday, he\u00a0promised\u00a0that it \u201cwill blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension\u201d, while on Wednesday he\u00a0teased\u00a0that the truck \u201ccan transform into a robot, fight aliens and make one hell of a latte\u201d.<\/p>\n

There was no espresso machine to be seen, but Musk did promise a laundry list of features that he claimed would ensure the overall cost of ownership will be 20% less per mile compared with diesel trucks. Among them: faster acceleration, better uphill performance, a 500-mile (805km) range at maximum weight at highway speed, and \u201cthermonuclear explosion-proof glass\u201d in the windshield.<\/p>\n

Safety features include enhanced autopilot, lane-keeping technology, and a design that makes jackknifing \u201cimpossible\u201d, Musk said.<\/p>\n

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The presentation included the surprise reveal of a new Tesla sports car. Photograph: Alexandria Sage\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company plans to build a network of \u201cMegachargers\u201d (as opposed to the \u201cSuperchargers\u201d used by other\u00a0Tesla\u00a0vehicles) that can produce a 400-mile charge in 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Musk claimed it would be \u201ceconomic suicide\u201d to continue using diesel trucks, saying the Tesla version, if driven in convoy, would be cheaper than shipping goods by rail.<\/p>\n

The CEO\u2019s promises for the new Roadster were no less ambitious. Musk said the car\u2019s acceleration from 0 to 60 mph and 0 to 100 mph, as well as its quarter-mile speed, were all \u201cworld records\u201d for production cars.<\/p>\n

He said production on the trucks would begin in 2019 and the sports cars would be available in 2020.<\/p>\n

Despite the confidence exuded by Musk, questions will undoubtedly arise about the company\u2019s capacity to manufacture the new vehicles.<\/p>\n

Tesla debuted its first mass-market sedan, the Model 3,\u00a0to much fanfare in July, when the waitlist for the vehicle already numbered more than 500,000. Since then, production has not gone smoothly.<\/p>\n

In the third quarter of 2017, the company produced just 260 Model 3s \u2013 well below the 1,500 it had promised in August. Tesla blamed \u201cproduction bottlenecks\u201d for the delays. The\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported that as recently as September, the cars were still being built by hand, rather than on an automated assembly line.<\/p>\n